Concrete Pouring & Finishing JSA

Concrete work injures people in ways that surprise crews new to it. The obvious hazards — the pump, the formwork, the rebar — sit alongside one that acts slowly: wet concrete is caustic, and a day kneeling in it causes chemical burns that people do not feel until the damage is done.

OSHA covers this work in 1926 Subpart Q, and the rule that catches crews out is about timing: formwork and shoring may only come off when the concrete has been determined to support itself, and that determination is somebody's documented job.

What the work involves

• Erecting and bracing formwork, shoring and reshoring
• Placing and tying reinforcing steel
• Placing concrete by pump, bucket, chute or buggy
• Screeding, floating, troweling and finishing
• Stripping formwork and cutting or grinding cured concrete

Hazards and controls

Controls are listed in hierarchy order — the further down the list a control sits, the less it should be carrying on its own.

1. Formwork, shoring or falsework collapse during the pour

• Engineering: formwork designed, fabricated, erected and braced to carry the loads and lateral pressures of placement, to drawings prepared by a qualified designer.
• Administrative: a competent person inspects the formwork and shoring immediately before, during and after placement; the pour stops if anything moves.
• Administrative: placement rate and sequence as designed — overfilling one area is what pushes a wall form.

29 CFR 1926.703(a)(1) requires formwork to be designed, fabricated, erected, supported, braced and maintained to support all vertical and lateral loads that might be applied to it. 29 CFR 1926.703(e)(1) prohibits removal of forms and shores until the employer determines the concrete has gained sufficient strength to support its weight and superimposed loads.

2. Impalement on protruding reinforcing steel

• Eliminate: bend protruding bar over, or cut it off, where the design allows.
• Engineering: rebar caps or troughs on all exposed ends anyone could fall onto.
• Engineering: guardrails or fall protection so the fall cannot happen in the first place — caps protect against a trip, not a fall from height.

29 CFR 1926.701(b) requires all protruding reinforcing steel onto and into which employees could fall to be guarded to eliminate the hazard of impalement.

3. Concrete pump line or placement equipment failure

• Engineering: hose and pipeline sections secured by positive fastenings so a disconnection cannot whip the line; whip checks at every coupling.
• Engineering: compressed air placement systems fitted so a blockage cannot discharge at people.
• Administrative: exclusion zone at the discharge and along the line; nobody clears a blockage until pressure is relieved.

29 CFR 1926.702(e)(1) requires concrete pumping system hose sections to be secured by positive fastenings to prevent separation under pressure.

4. Cement burns and eye injury from wet concrete

• Substitute: knee boards and placement tools that keep skin out of the mix.
• Engineering: wash station with clean water at the pour, and eyewash available.
• Administrative: change out of concrete-soaked clothing immediately — the burn comes from prolonged contact, not a splash.
• PPE: alkali-resistant gloves, waterproof boots, long sleeves and eye protection.

29 CFR 1926.28(a) requires the employer to require the wearing of appropriate personal protective equipment where there is an exposure to hazardous conditions. 29 CFR 1926.50(g) requires suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body where corrosive materials may injure employees.

5. Respirable crystalline silica from cutting, grinding or dry sweeping

• Eliminate: order pre-cut material; wet-cut rather than dry-cut.
• Engineering: integrated water delivery on saws, local exhaust ventilation with HEPA on grinders, as set out in the standard's control table.
• Administrative: never dry sweep concrete dust — HEPA vacuum or wet sweep; a written exposure control plan with a named competent person.
• PPE: respirators as the table specifies for the task and duration.

29 CFR 1926.1153(c) provides Table 1, the specified exposure control methods for common silica-generating tasks, with the engineering controls and respiratory protection required for each. 29 CFR 1926.1153(g) requires a written exposure control plan identifying the tasks involving silica exposure and the controls used, with a competent person to implement it.

A worked example row

This is how one line of the finished JSA reads, with the risk bands scored on the same 4-band matrix the generator prints:

Related work activities

• Tilt-Up & Precast Concrete JSA
• Silica Dust JSA
• Excavation & Trenching JSA